Consumer counsel wants hearings on high-speed internet in Connecticut

Published
11:23 pm EDT, Wednesday, June 22, 2016

The Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel is asking state regulators to open hearings on rules that would give ultra high-speed internet providers easier access to the 900,000 utility poles across the state.

OCC, which represents the interests of ratepayers, wants the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to standardize rules governing the use of utility poles and underground conduits. The goal is to give ultra high-speed internet providers fair and equitable access to develop robust networks around the state.

“The Municipal Gain Statute requires that space be reserved on every utility pole and every underground conduit in the state for use by the municipality,” Vallee said. “The idea here is that the municipalities could use the space provided to them so that the providers could develop their broadband networks.”

Utility poles in Connecticut are jointly owner by the state’s incumbent phone company, Frontier Communications, and the electric utilities that serve each community, he said. Other utilities that want to locate their networks on the poles pay a monthly fee to the owners.

Vallee said having the state’s municipalities make use of the space they have available under the Municipal Gain Statute for broadband networks “would be a major step toward allowing the communities to engage with investors.” Those investors would pay for the build out of a statewide broadband network, he said.

“Outside investors are very interested in Connecticut because of the demographics and because the terrain here makes it easier to develop a network,” Vallee said.

The easier the state and its communities make it for broadband providers to develop their networks, the more likely it is that the build out will occur quickly, he said.

Vallee said one of the reasons a broadband provider like Google Fiber is already established in cities like Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tenn. is that those communities have municipally owned electric companies.

“If the door is wide open, I think you’re going to see some action pronto,” he said of the broadband providers. “But if I cant get on the poles easily and I can’t get on them for a reasonable price, then I am not coming here.”

Efforts to bring broadband to all of the state’s 169 communities date back to 2014. State officials like Connecticut Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson-Katz and Kevin Lembo, the state’s comptroller, as well as the mayors of New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford, favored a public sector effort to expand broadband availability. They say the private sector has failed to show the desire to expand broadband.